Compliqué
by Miles Above My Head
Summary: Natara and Mal couldn't exactly explain what was going on between them. Mal regrets everything he did to ruin whatever it was. He knows it was unforgivable. Not many people understand, though. It's complicated.


Mal Fallon wandered about the streets of San Francisco aimlessly nearly every night since he quit his job at the police department. On the night of June 6, he was on one of those frequent nighttime wanderings and happened to be stumbling his way past an old bar. Outside the door, almost as if expecting him, leaned a woman.

Mal stopped for a moment, head in hands, and rubbed him eyes slowly with exhaustion. It had been a long night, as always.

"Hey," the woman greeted Mal quietly. "You alright?"

He raised his head slightly and gave it a miniscule shake.

"No," he croaked hoarsely. "No, not…not really."

"Well come on inside," the woman stepped toward him and smiled. "I'm sure you could use a drink." She paused, considering him for a moment. "And talking about it wouldn't kill you either."

And with that, she spun around and stalked off into the bar, leaving Mal to traipse after her gloomily.

"Here you go," the woman said, setting down two drinks on their table and shaking his hand formally before sitting down. "I'm an author, that is I will be some day when I get a book published."

"I'm Mal," he answered curtly.

"Well, Mal," she said. "Anything you'd like to talk about?"

He said no.

"Alright," she answered quietly. They drank in silence for a while.

Four drinks later, he was talking.

_3 Years Ago_

A well-shaven, cheerier Mal Fallon sat at a desk in his office at the police station as his partner Special Agent Natara Williams walked through the door.

"Fancy getting some dinner?" she whispered, leaning over his desk. "I'm starving."

Mal smiled and breathed in the scent of her perfume before looking up.

"I…yeah, yeah let's go." He leapt up.

"Oh no, not yet," she smiled, stepping back. "I just have to run these papers-" She held up a manila folder. "-over to Oscar. Amy said he'd be talking to Captain Yeong."

After twenty minutes, Mal put his pen down, unable to concentrate. He walked out of his office wondering where Natara had gone. Mal wandered over to the captain's office, but paused with one hand on the doorknob. He had just heard his name.

"But Maria," Natara's muffled voice pleaded. "You _know _Mal and I don't feel that way." He recognized her effort to inject some logic into her plea. "We aren't involved like that and…and he doesn't even want to be…"

"Natara, I'm sorry," Captain Yeong sighed audibly. "The inspector is coming in a few days to make sure we're all running smoothly and working well together-"

"Mal and I work well together," Natara interjected angrily.

"I'm sorry, Natara," Maria repeated. "I can't take any risks here. I can't... The inspector won't want…." She hesitated, and then said more firmly, "Starting Monday, you and Mal Fallon will be assigned new partners."

Mal stood frozen outside the office door as inside, two chairs scraped as their owners vacated them. The doorknob underneath his hand turned and his hand jumped off it as Natara walked out, followed by Captain Yeong. Natara's eyebrows raised at the sight of him.

"So…so are you ready, then?" she asked.

"Ready?" he repeated absently. "Ready for…?"

"To go get dinner?" she answered suspiciously. "Were you…Mal, were you eavesdropping?"

"Yes," he answered honestly as Captain Yeong sighed again. "Well, let's…let's get to it then."

"Yes…," Natara said thoughtfully and followed him back to his office.

When they had entered the office, she stalked off to the other side of it and folded her arms cross her chest, not facing him. Mal sensed she was on the verge of losing restraint and left the office door open. Nothing wrong with a witness or two. As he began rummaging around in his desk and collecting his possessions, a quiet voice spoke.

"Close the door."

He straightened up and looked at Natara's back, but did not move.

"_Close _the door."

Mal crossed to the door and carefully shut it. He felt the air in the room tense before he turned back around and saw Natara facing him with a dangerous look on her face.

"So," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "So you-"

"Yeah, look, Nat," Mal interrupted, with an air of trying to avoid something unpleasant. "I wasn't trying to-"

"YOU DON'T JUST STAND OUTSIDE A DOOR WITH YOUR EAR PRESSED AGAINST IT AND 'ACCIDENTALLY'-"

"My ear wasn't pressed against-"

"NO WONDER CAPTAIN YEONG THINKS THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON BETWEEN US. IF YOU CAN'T EVEN KEEP AWAY-"

"I just wanted to know where you'd gone-"

"I SAID I'D BE BACK SO WE COULD GO OUT FOR DINNER-"

"Maybe there's a reason you think this is such a big deal," Mal finished coolly.

Natara faltered slightly. "What's that supposed to mean?" she said with an air of trying to stay angry, but her voice shook slightly. "What did you hear?"

Did he hear something Natara wouldn't have wanted him to hear? It sounded to Mal as though Captain Yeong and Natara had been having a rather personal talk over something. Natara was not yelling anymore, but looked rather anxious, indeed she looked terrified.

"What did you hear?" she repeated.

"What shouldn't I have heard?" Mal smirked.

Her temper flared again and his grin disappeared.

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE HEARD ANY OF IT, MAL!"

"Look," Mal cautiously stepped over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, keen to keep the conversation quiet. It wasn't unusual for the various officers milling about the precinct to tune in to daily drama. She gave him a murderous look. "Look. I'm just saying that maybe Captain Yeong has a reason to be suspicious. We are always together…and we get along well enough…usually," he finished bitterly.

"What are you suggesting, exactly?" Natara asked coldly. "We give her a reason to be suspicious?"

"Maybe we should," he answered quietly.

"W-what?" she whispered, all pretense lost.

"Maybe we should confirm everyone's suspicions," Mal answered.

He moved his hand gently from her shoulder to her cheek and looked into those eyes that made him smile for over a year now. He leaned towards her. Natara's eyes were now closed tight, as if willing herself to believe what was happening.

And then, without planning it, without worrying about what she would do, without caring about what others would think, Mal kissed her. He felt her lips curve into a smile as she kissed him back and felt her hands tangled in his hair.

The door behind them flew open with a bang and they broke apart just in time to see a wild-eyed Captain Maria Yeong in the doorway, looking furiously back and forth between their guilty faces.


End file.
